by Sadie Savage
Not Julia. She was stiff and shaking. Her hands gripped at the loops that his belt ran through. It was like she was doing everything in her power not to touch him in any way that could be construed as intimate or sexy. She was too sacred to relax and let the ride happen. He had to be careful going around curves because she didn’t lean and her rigidity threatened to send the bike to the asphalt. Ordinarily that would have irritated him, and made him pull over and boot off whatever woman was back there because she was a danger to him.
His patience level stayed high as he drove slowly, keeping a good pace but not going fast enough to unseat her if something happened. Her legs jerked a few times when cars got a little too close. That distracted him on more than one level. Her body heat and the smell of her hair as it whipped over his shoulder, the small distressed sounds she made every now and then, they all caught his attention and he had to force himself to focus on the road ahead of him.
Ditmas was a high income neighborhood filled with stately Victorian mansions and single family house but not much else. Ace pulled up in front of one house whose driveway curved around the back. Lights came on. A door opened. He waved a hand and the door shut again.
Julia looked around at the small yard and the tiny converted garage with a wary expression. He said, “It’s safe and you will be fine.”
He led her through the yard and to the door. He tapped in the code and the door swung open. They entered and she took a look around as he found the light switch and flicked it on to reveal a small space dominated by one long room that served as both living and bedroom. A tiny kitchen area was in one corner and a door to the bathroom took up space on the opposite wall.
Julia shot look at the bed, which sat behind a small partial screen. She asked, “does anyone live here right now?’
Ace said, “No. It’s been empty for about a week. It’s clean and there are drinks in the fridge. If you get hungry there are some snack things in the cabinet. We use it as an AirBnB mostly and we…”
He stopped when she burst into laughter. The sound, light and tinkling, made his heart leap. How long had it been since he had heard real and unashamed laughter? Her eyes crinkled a little at the corners and her youthful laughter slowly stopped. She said, “Sorry. I just never thought I would hear someone like you say AirBnB.”
He grinned. “I bet. I have to go.”
She gulped. Her eyes went around the space. It seemed to hit her then, what she had done and the enormity of it. She gasped out, “What do I do?”
“You stay here until I can figure something out.”
“I have classes day after tomorrow.” Her fingers plucked at the long coils of her hair. Her eyes went round the room, a slight frown puckering her smooth forehead. “I…I have to work.”
Ace sighed inwardly. His sigh got longer as she suddenly burst into harsh sobs and sat down abruptly on the side of the bed, her face burying itself in her slender hands. Her shoulders shook. Tears coursed down her face. “Oh my God. I really didn’t think this through. I’m just so scared and…and I hate him so much! I hate him!”
Walker, he realized. She hated Walker. He told himself to go but his feet took him to the bed and he sat down on it beside her, one arm going around her shaking shoulders. “We have that in common then.”
Her head lifted. Tears streamed down her face. She spoke forcefully. “I do hate him. I hate him for all the things he does and wants to do. I hate all the things he uses against me and against anyone who gets in his way but mostly I hate him because when my mom died all he did was laugh and say there was one bitch they never had to worry about ever again. I know, deep down I do know, that the only reason he insisted on me going to him and his family was because they didn’t know for sure whether or not my mother had told me what it was she knew about him and his family and he wanted to make damn sure I couldn’t talk.”
His arm tightened around her shoulders. Her body, slight but so richly curved that it sent passion crashing into his flesh, leaned into his. Her hair, silken and sweet smelling, spread over his shoulders. Her sobs grew louder. “The first night I was there, before that happened to your cousin and before they all took off to Florida? He beat the living crap out of me and told me that from then on out all I was, was property. That I belonged to them and nobody else, not even myself. Then they all left and left me there with that crazy bitch Carla, and your cousin, who was dying. You have no idea what that was like. None. Nobody does and I have had to fight for some kind of normalcy my whole damn life since my mom died. I hate him for that, hate him. Before I was there I had a good life and I want that back. I want that back so badly!”
She was not going to get that yet, and maybe never. There was a good chance that she would not live past the week, not if Walker found her and found out what she had done.
Ace felt a surge of protectiveness that he had felt in so many years. It was the same kind of protectiveness eh had felt for Margo but it was vastly different too. Margo had been family. This woman was not and along with that need to protect her came a rush of wanting of her so strong that it toppled his defenses.
He had meant to seduce her, of that he was sure. He had meant to and he still wanted to but all of his reasons for doing it changed the moment her head lifted and his lips found her soft and trembling mouth.
Chapter 6
The kiss stole away Julia’s senses. Everything she had ever felt before when being kissed vanished beneath the kiss that Ace gave her. Her body shook and her breasts flattened against his chest, that strong chest of his. Her hands came up and clutched at his shoulders. She felt the strength and flex of those shoulders as her fingers sank into the muscles.
His flat belly and lean hips met hers. Her gasp as his tongue slid into her mouth, bringing the flavor of his mouth and even more sensation to her, sent her into a tailspin of desire that she could not deny, and did not want to deny. Her legs trembled and hot and sticky fluids dripped from her core, spilled onto the thin fabric of her panties. Her nipples went thick and stiff, poking against his chest while his fingers fisted her hair and yanked her head back so that he could ravage her neck with fiery kisses and nips that sent his teeth into her flesh in a way that bordered but never became actually painful.
She knew she should stop tis now. He had not asked for this, he had not demanded it as part of the bargain. There were so many reasons not to do this. She didn’t know him well. She had dreamed of a man who loved her and wanted her more than anything and anyone else in the world taking her virginity. He was so much older than she had no idea of how to react to him, but her body seemed to have a mind of its own on that one.
Her legs shook yet again as his fingers traveled down her back, his fingertips pressing into the raised knobs of her spine and then going lower until he was clutching the perky halves of her ass cheeks.
She wanted him His age didn’t matter. The fact that he was an enemy of her family didn’t matter. All that mattered was the way his mouth made little fiery trails run along her flesh and the way that his body melded into hers, made her want to rip her clothes off and show him every inch of her flesh. His mouth came back to hers. His teeth caught her bottom lip and she cried out as he tugged gently at her lip with his teeth while his very masculine hardness prodded against her lower belly, sending more fluids into her panties, which were now soaked and laden with her oils.
He stripped her bare, exposing her flesh to his hands and mouth. He found her nipples and suckled them. She stared, rapt, at the sight of his head lowered to the creamy flesh of her breast. It was so erotic, so fantastic, and then he bit down gently and raised the sensation level until she could barely breathe. Her fingers tangled into his coarse hair as he laid her across the bed.
His tongue moved lower and her body jerked upward as his mouth found her wet center. His fingers plunged into her tight sheath, stroking and teasing until she cried out, her ass lifting higher with each stroke of his tongue across the skin of her clit. His tongue ran in slow circles than lashed back
and forth across that flesh, creating a friction like she had never known. Her eyes closed and her hands tugged at his hair again.
She had never felt anything like what she felt right then. She was desperate and begging and she was slightly ashamed of that but so excited she could not stop. She wanted this and she wanted it so much that all she could do was hang on tight as he lifted himself and then moved along the length of her shivering body. His hand guided his dick to her slippery opening and then with one quick thrust of his hips he entered her. A sharp pain struck. Her eyes widened and she screamed, a sharp burst of sound. His face went pale. He looked at her, his mouth, wet with her juices, working. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “I’m sorry. I …”
“I’m okay,” she panted out even though she was not at all sure if she was okay. His organ was large and heavy and she felt filled up, filled in a way that made her body have to stretch to accommodate him. Her legs spread wider in an effort to contain all of his flesh and he slid backward, his ass working. His eyes stayed pinned to hers and then he thrust forward again, his fingers digging into her shoulders as he thrust hard and fast and went so deep that she gasped and rocked below him. His hands went under her ass, lifting her hips. He released her hips and she moved with him, catching the rhythm as he worked her clit again, that time with his fingers.
The friction and heat combined until her eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth hung open. He kissed her again and she whimpered and moaned into his mouth, kissing him back furiously.
The orgasm took her over the edge. She writhed against him, and against the mattress. Her cries grew longer and lustier with every squeezing pulse that left her inner walls soaked and his cock dripping with her fluids. He came too, sending splatters of hot and thick seed into her body.
He collapsed on top of her, his arm bracing him up so that all of his weight was not down on top of her. The tang of sweat and sex hung all over the two fo them as they rode out the aftershocks and the pleasant afterglow.
Eventually he moved. He rolled off the bed and looked down at her. His face held something but she had no idea of what it was. He smiled at her. “I have to go. You will be okay here. I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”
She believed him. She did. She had no reason to but she did. She whispered, “Thank you.’
He dressed quickly. She hated to see his body vanishing below those clothes. She took a deep and long breath then asked, “Would you…will you come back?”
“Yes. Get some sleep.”
She hoped he would kiss her but he didn’t. Instead he walked out and closed the door tightly behind himself.
Julia cuddled down into the tossed bedsheets and covers. Her body was sore but not in a pleasant way and she was exhausted in ways she had never known before. Her eyes closed and she started to drift off to sleep but she jerked back awake again quickly.
For the last five years her life had been a series of broken sleep and extreme stress. The first beating she had taken at Walker’s hands had shown her just how much she had to fear and she had never forgotten that. Most nights the house was filled with the sounds of partying or arguments. Because the rest of the crew lived in the adjacent houses and any neighbor dumb enough to file a noise complaint faced being shut up by the crew nobody ever did anything to keep it quiet in there. She often had to sleep with her fingers pressed against her head and then she would wake a dozen times because she was afraid that she was about to be attacked.
She rolled over in the bed, staring at the wall. She knew she should have done something way sooner than she had but what could she have done? She had been a minor until recently and after she had turned eighteen she had been so scared of Walker and he had been so adamant that she stay that she had been trapped by her own helplessness. Her only hope had been running away and even that had been a slim hope because Walker took every single dime she had ever earned.
Julia lay still for a few moments, listening hard. There was only silence and eventually her body relaxed into the soft mattress and her eyes closed again. Now that she was safe deep and dreamless sleep came in, taking her down into its warm embrace.
**
Ace was not sleeping. He and his bike prowled restlessly along the streets of Williamsburg. He knew he should call Jack or Bert and tell them what Julia had told him. They needed to be informed of the vile plot that Walker had concocted.
His thoughts should have been focused solely on his crew instead they were focused on the incredible woman lying in the bed that he had just left. That he had been loath to leave her gave him pause. Even more troubling was the fact that not only had he not wanted to leave her, his sudden surge of protectiveness toward her could be used against him. It would be used against him, and he knew it. The question was who would use it against him first? Julia or Walker?
He truly wanted to believe everything that Julia had said about Walker. He wanted to believe that she hated her brother and wanted nothing more than to be as far away from Walker as she could get. Only Ace had been raised not to trust anyone with anything and if he bet on Julia he would be betting not only his own life but the lives of the men in his crew. Many of those men had families too, and if Julia turned out to be just a very good liar and prove to be actually working with Walker then all of them were in danger now.
Those thoughts haunted Ace as he rode into Williamsburg. He found a curb on a quiet side street and parked the bike there before taking out his phone. His fingers found the screen and opened it. He lifted the phone to his ear and listened to it buzz on the other side. After several rings Bert picked up.
Ace wasted no time. He said, “we have trouble coming our way. Get the guys on the street on foot and do it now. Walker’s prospects are posing as narcs. There gonna be shaking down our street crew and trying to pin it on us.”
Bert’s voice hissed across the line. “Man, you have to be kidding me. What do I tell the guys out there hustling?”
Ace said, “Tell them to fight back, to do whatever it takes, and not to believe that they’re cops. Let them know it’s Walker’s prospects posing as narcs.”
Bert said, “Man, that’s risky as hell.”
Ace started walking, his boots making quick time along the sidewalk. “I know it is. We don’t have any choice. If we don’t tell them that it’s Walker’s prospects they will think we are weak. The only way we keep them in line is by making them feel protected. If they feel like we can’t do anything for them they have no reason to pay us or run our shit.”
Bert asked, “Do you think that’s Walker’s end game? I mean, do you think his whole goal is to make our crew look weak and unable to handle our borough?”
Ace walked faster. “I think that’s exactly what he is trying to do. I think he’s trying to prove to not only our borough but to Pete’s connection that we can handle our own. He’s trying to make us look like clowns over here. I think he believes that once he gets Pete’s connection and has the money and the dope he can go to the dealers here on the street, our dealers, and get them to take a slice of his pie.”
Bert said, “If he manages to pull this stunt tonight it would give them every reason to think we can’t protect them.”
Walker’s jaw went tight. A small muscle jerked up high in his cheek. “Even more reason to make sure this does not go down the way Walker plans, don’t you think?”
Bert chuckled. “I’ll grab my brass knuckles dude. I think we should leave the guns at home, there’s going to be a whole lot of people out on the streets since its warm and the weekend.”
Ace said, “you are absolutely right. We can’t afford to have some neighborhood millionaire or a tourist from some small town in the middle of the Midwest get shot. Not even the cops on our payroll would be able to keep that from coming back to bite us in the ass.”
Bert hung up. Ace stuck the phone in his pocket and went around the corner. He spotted a guy named Carlos, a streetwise hustler with a penchant for expensive shoes and even more expensive cigars. Carlos’s favo
rite spot to deal from was a club about a block and a half down. The club drew a lot of trust fund babies and Wall Street types who came over to Brooklyn on the weekend to do a little slumming with the locals and to keep from being seen buying coke and meth.
Ace said, “Hey man, need to holler at you.”
Carlos slowed and said, “About what? I got no bill due.”
Ace gave him a grim smile. “This is not about a bill. I’m going to owe you a little extra in fact.”
Carlos lifted an eyebrow toward his hairline. “Now you have me intrigued. What’s up?”
Ace quickly outlined the situation. Carlos listened until Ace finished what he had to say. Carlos scratched a finger along the side of his nose and said, “man, how sure are you of this? Maybe your source is really working with the cops. You thought about that?”
He hadn’t. Ace felt a quiver of misgiving. It all did seem far too coincidental. He had been considering seducing Julia in order to get her to turn against Walker and so that he could thwart Walker’s plans to give Julia to Pete exchange for an intro to his connection. But before he could implement his plan she had struck a bargain with him.
Another thought occurred to Ace just then. Could somebody in his own crew be working with Walker? Could whoever that was have told Walker what his plan was for Julia? Could Walker have sent Julia to him for the sole purpose of having her tell him about the supposed fake sting tonight?
No. She had been coming back from Manhattan, and if she had been looking for him to trap him into this situation she would’ve gone straight from her job very Williamsburg to his clubhouse.
He said, “I tell you what. If those dirtbags don’t show up then I was wrong. If the ones who do show up are narcs and anyone gets extra charges because they fought against going down then I will personally pay their bail and a lawyer fee.”
Carlos said, “That’s cool. I will let all of the guys I know in on it.”
Carlos headed up the street in one direction while Ace went in the other. As Ace walked the thoughts that Carlos had just put into his head followed him. How did he know he could trust Julia?